


Memory of a Stranger

by Fandomfanatics09



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2020-03-01 13:49:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18801598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fandomfanatics09/pseuds/Fandomfanatics09
Summary: The memory of a stranger haunts Bucky as he's tortured by Hydra.





	Memory of a Stranger

Bucky woke suddenly and instantly his full fight mode activated. He sat up straight ready to punch his way out of any danger he could be in. For a moment he was confused about where he was, the cold grey walls of his cell becoming familiar the more he looked at them. Hydra had done it again. wiped his brain of any memory of who he was. Locked in the chair with the electrical pads forced against his head, the grunting and screaming as he bit through the mouthpiece. He remembered that. 

“Желание”

Longing

“Ржавый”

Rusty

“Семнадцать” 

Seventeen

“Рассвет” 

Daybreak

The trigger words screamed in his head. He couldn’t shut them out no matter what he did, no matter how hard he pulled at his long brown hair, no matter how much he punched his metal fist against the wall. He just couldn’t make the screaming stop.

Bucky let out his frustrations with a long, rage-filled scream. Then another. Another and another. He knew that the guards were watching him but he also knew they wouldn’t help him. They never did. Sometimes he thought they got off on watching him go through the process of leaving Bucky Barnes behind and becoming the Winter Soldier. They liked watching him suffer. 

After hours of trying to fight off Hydra’s control, he gave up, collapsing in a sweaty disheveled heap on the cot. He panted as he tried to search his brain for any trace of his former life, anything he could hold on to. He closed his eyes, his bottom lip quivering as he pleads quietly. 

“Please” he whispered helplessly “Please” 

Then he saw it. The faint memory of a face, a blond man with bright blue eyes smiling kindly at him. Bucky couldn’t help but smile as he saw the familiar face. He didn’t know who the man was, he couldn’t remember, all he knew was that this man kept him from the brink of total insanity. Every time Hydra put his brain back in the blender he could just close his eyes and see the man. He hoped that one day he’d be able to remember who he was, so he could find him and thank him but for now, he would just hold on to the image of the stranger’s sweet face. 

Every day that he worked for Hydra he would take the stranger with him, in his mind. Sometimes he’d even talk to him when he was alone. He’d tell him about his day, who he killed and how, and the stranger would just smile brightly at him. 

Bucky wished more than anything that he could know who the stranger was if it was a relative or a friend. Surely Bucky had to know him and he had to be important enough to be the only remnants of a life long erased, but who was he?

The more Hydra tortured the soldier the more the stranger faded into the darkness and Bucky desperately tried to grasp onto the image of the face. 

“Male. Blond.” Bucky would mutter every night as he lay on the dirty cot “Blue eyed. Smile like the sun.” 

Soon the stranger was completely gone from Bucky’s mind, which meant Bucky was gone. He was now one hundred percent the Winter Soldier, a ruthless killer who cared for no one only meant to follow orders and nothing more. When a Hydra agent told him his next mission he didn’t think twice about it, he jumped up, grabbed his gun and went. 

The redheaded woman just wouldn’t die. She kept outsmarting him no matter where he turned. He even threw a grenade at her and she managed to escape it. He had finally had enough of the back and forth combat and he lifted his gun to shoot her, sending a bullet flying through her shoulder. He slowly stalked toward her, gun raised with caution as she disappeared behind a stalled vehicle in the middle of the street. As he approached her someone carrying a metal shield charged at him. Bucky grunted with displeasure at the new fight but went all in, punching and kicking the attacker off of him. Whoever he was was strong and wasn’t willing to go down without a hell of a fight. 

“Shit,” he thought to himself as the mask covering his face flew off when the man flipped him over

He slowly turned his head, blue eyes narrowed at the attacker. He felt a spark of familiarity when he saw the man’s shocked face staring back at him.

“Bucky?” the man said with confusion 

“Who the hell is Bucky?” Bucky said, honestly the first words he had spoken in years.

The two stood and stared at each other until a third person flew from behind, knocking Bucky into a spin to the ground. Moving quickly, Bucky got back on his feet as his eyes remained locked on the first man. It felt as if his brain was shorting out as familiarity returned to him. He tried to process what his brain was telling him but Hydra’s “fight or flight” mode took over and he lifted his gun to shoot at the man. An explosion suddenly distracted all parties and Bucky took the opportunity to completely vanish, realizing he was now outnumbered.

Once he was safe he began going over the events of what had happened. 

“Tall man.” Bucky muttered “Blonde. Smile...like the sun” 

Bucky’s eyes widened as the memory of the stranger came flooding back to him. The man he had shot at was the stranger who had came to him in the night for years before Hydra successfully destroyed him. The stranger that had been his only friend, the only person he could talk to, even if he was just a hallucination. He was face to face with him and he blew it. Bucky hated himself for having not made the connection sooner and missing the opportunity but now he knew where the man was and he could find him again if he could just lose Hydra’s track on him. 

Bucky had his new mission: find the man with the smile like the sun


End file.
